Fair Use Gets a Fair Shake in Second Life - (EFF.org)

Fair Use Gets a Fair Shake in Second Life

Commentary by Eva Galperin of EFF.org
 

Kudos to Linden Lab, which has just release an update to the Terms of Service for their virtual world, Second Life, that includes language that will protect fair use of screenshots and machinima. The new Snapshot and Machinima Content License grants Linden Lab and other users of Second Life a license to use “in snapshots and machinima your Content that is displayed in-World in publicly accessible areas of the Service.”

Machinima, which refers works that use real-time 3-D graphics engines to generate computer animation, could have presented a special problem for Second Life, where every individual object in view is potentially a different person’s intellectual property. Getting permission from so many owners of IP in order to create a machinima is potentially nightmarish. Instead of running from the new kinds of fair use enabled by new technologies, Linden Lab has embraced them. The new license allows Second Life users to reserve the rights to their creations by placing them in areas that are not publicly accessible. Second Life makes tools available to users that allow them to restrict access to their Virtual Land and its contents. The rules are simple and intuitive: if you don’t want people taking pictures of your floating city/dancing bear/epic space opera, don’t leave your floating city/dancing bear/epic space opera in a public place.

Linden Lab’s behavior should be an object lesson to movie studios and major record labels, who have alienated their own fans by trying to thwart new fair uses as they come along, whether through DRM or DMCA takedowns. Linden Lab has shown that there are innovative new ways to give the green-light to fair uses while still giving users the freedom to protect their creations. We hope that movie studios and major record labels are taking notes, because Linden Lab is showing them how it’s done.

Role-Playing Banned from Second Life in new Terms of Service

In what could only be a spiting vengeful move to cause confusion and mass panic across the grid, Linden Lab has announced that "Role-Playing" is now an unacceptable form of use inside the virtual world platform Second Life.  All inworld role-play avatars and groups must cease and desist.  Linden Lab says that the bold move was due to "persistent user complaints."  Many users were simply unsure if the avatar he or she was talking to was really real or not.  Other new Second Life users simply did not understand the concept of an 'avatar' and therefore Linden Lab wanted to make SL an experience everyone can comprehend.  Several Linden Lab employees seen inworld were overheard saying "first we're banning the Goreans, then the dragons, then the steampunk freaks, then the vampires, then the furries, then the tinies... we'll leave the prostitutes for last... because we'll need proof first that is not their real life profession."

( Am I allowed anymore? )

On March 31st, 2010, Gridizens were welcomed during login by a Linden Lab Terms of Service Update Agreement. Section 25.2.b.4 of the Terms of Service states

"All residents must be who they truly are in real life.  Any Second Life user who is caught not being who they are in real life may result in suspension or account termination.  Linden Lab will begin enforcing this policy effective immediately."

Linden Lab employees dressed their avatars in police officer's uniforms to show a public display of authority inworld and went swarming across the grid with tazers in hand.  The first role-play group targeted were... basically... all "avatars"... who have since had their homes derezzed and their groups deleted.

POLL: Did you read the new Linden Lab/Second Life Terms of Service (March 31st, 2010)?

March 31st, 2010 Update: Terms of Service

March 31st, 2010 Update: Privacy Policy

Snickers Snook's Thoughts & Highlights on the Changes:
Major Second Life changes - ARRRGGGGGHHHH!

 

It's Really Quite Simple

Click to enlarge

From Penny Arcade!
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/4/24/its-really-quite-simple/

Linden Lab Bans Camping and Traffic Bots | Linden Lab | Second Life

FINALLY!
Linden Lab Bans Camping and Traffic Bots

Conclusion to the Blog Post on Bots
Posted by Jack Linden

"...Camping or Traffic Bots

Almost everyone agrees that using Bots to manipulate traffic (and therefore Search rankings) is unfair. Not only with respect to Search itself but also due to the load on Mainland Region resources and how that can impact other Residents in the area. Therefore we are setting policy that attempting to gain an unfair Search advantage, by the use of Bots to inflate the Traffic for a parcel, will be considered a violation. This policy applies to both Mainland and Private Estates as both are represented in Search.Therefore we are setting policy that attempting to gain an unfair Search

How Will This Be Enforced?

This time next week we will begin to routinely look at the Search results and where we find clear use of Bots to gain an unfair Search advantage we will be handling it as an abuse issue. We will not need you to abuse report this, instead we will monitor the Search results. To begin with we will message the land owner to issue a warning, but this will escalate to an account suspension or removal from Search if it persists. The usual Abuse-appeals process will be available for anyone that feels that the decision is unfair.

We will not be banning or removing Bots from Second Life. There are many amazing and useful ways to use Bots and the fact that in some circumstances they can be misused should not impact the more constructive users of Bots. We wouldn't remove Scripting because it can sometimes be used in bad ways, and Bots are no different in that respect. Going forward we are going to look at ways to allow you to voluntarily identify to us that an account is a Bot, so that we can remove it from Traffic completely.

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How Vocal are you about Second Life Issues, Policy, and News

Doubledown's Suggestion on how Mature content should be handled on the Grid

As mentioned before, Linden Lab has announced that mature content (content that is of a lewd sexual nature mostly) will no longer be on allowed on the mainland. Plenty of residents responded with questions: What does that mean? What is going to happen? Where can I park my dildos?
Along with that comes theories as to why Linden Lab would make this major world shift.

I have a suggestion on how to solve the problem without moving anyone (assuming the actual problem is that some people do not want to accidentally run into graphic adult content.)

On all account preferences, we each would have a main account check box that says something like "I agree that by checking this box all lands marked 'mature' will be open and available to me. I understand this means I may unintentionally see things of a graphic nature"
This would be a main account default. If you check the box, you are agreeing that every and all content in world is of their creator's accord, and I want SL to be wide open to me.

Now, if that main account mature preferences is not checked, then the user would see a YES or NO option in mid teleport to a mature sim. When the person would try to teleport to mature land, the person would receive a message "You are about to enter a mature area of Second Life. Click YES to proceed or click NO to return to your previous location." This would prevent anyone from somehow unintentionally coincidentally TPing into a mature themed area.

Let's say the person isn't teleporting over, and they are flying through: a blue box would appear with the same message "You are entering a mature area. You must agree that you are aware that mature uncensored content may be present. Click YES to stay or NO return to your home."

In my opinion, this solves the problem, if the problem is that there are not enough controls to avoid unwanted adult content in any users SL experience. But is that the problem? Linden Lab wants to move every and all mature content off the mainland. Why? If a user wants to control whether they run into adult content or not, it seems my method above would solve the problem.

I do see that it is a good ability to have (especially for business and for education) a preventive measure so you, your clients, your students, will not run into graphic content. However, uprooting a whole society and segregating them to the outskirts of Second Life seems to be the most irrational drastic of all the possibilities available.

Doubledown Tandino

P.S. Who are all these crazy educators that are constantly running into this nasty mature content? How is it that unavoidable? I am in Second Life full time daily and I don't run into anything mature except when MATURE is marked on the land.

P.P.S. I do not believe moving all mature content off the mainland will even solve the problem. When I am inworld, I almost never see where I am on the world map. Up until yesterday, I didn't even know if the land that I've been renting for months was mainland or islands.

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content - From the Linden Lab-Second Life Community Blog

UPCOMING CHANGES FOR ADULT CONTENT

From its beginning, Second Life has been an open place where Residents can explore a wide variety of creative pursuits. This has resulted in a vast amount of amazing content inworld, and has helped make Second Life the exceptional place it is. It is very important to Linden Lab that we support and preserve this creativity and openness as our community continues to grow, and as the range of uses for Second Life widens.

At the same time, we must ensure that all Residents can enjoy the virtual world. In particular, it has become clear that some Residents are interested in pursuing certain “Adult” activities in Second Life that others would rather not casually encounter. To address this, over the next few months, we will need to implement some changes around Adult content to ultimately give all Residents more control over their Second Life experiences. We believe we can implement a better system than we have now for managing this content -- one that is respectful of everyone’s personal preferences, yet does not detract from the creativity and passion that define Second Life.

The system we build will have three main features, which we will describe in great detail over the next few months. First, it will provide a way to geographically separate Adult content and activities to a part of the “mainland” designed to accommodate these activities (Estate owners with Adult content on their land will be required to flag their content; they will not be required to move). Second, it will filter search results, so that those who do not wish to see “Adult” results will not. Third, it will require that those who access or see “Adult” content (whether on land or in search) have had their accounts verified – such as by a payment or age verification method.

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Forum Discussions:

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Motivations and Goals

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Definitions

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Account Verification for Accessing Adult Content

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Filtering Adult Content in Search and Classifieds

Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Geographical Separation of Adult Content

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Dusan Writer's Take: Welcome to SLAMsterdam: Second Life Creates Silos of Sin, Goal is to be More Real

Tateru Nino on Massively - Linden Lab changes course for Second Life's mature content

Wagner James on New World Notes Amsterdammed: Linden Lab to Segregate "Adult" Content in Second Life to Red Light Continent (Real Life ID Required)

Virtual World News Linden Separating Adult Content From Rest Of Second Life

Crap Mariner on What is this Crap The Wages of Cyn

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(pictured above is a picture used in the LL blogs. It is pointless. As you can see, no adult content going on there. Why did they choose to use that picture? Is that what some land looks like once all the sex is cleaned up and moved out?)